Saudi King Abdullah has left a New York hospital to convalesce, the royal court declared on Wednesday, one month after his departure for back surgery. The Saudi monarch left the hospital on Tuesday evening "for his New York residence for a period of convalescence and physiotherapy," the court said in a statement cited by the official SPA news agency.

Saudi television showed Abdullah together with Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabeeah, walking with difficulty and smiling at hospital staff. He flew to New York on November 22 and was operated on two days later at New York Presbyterian Hospital for a debilitating herniated disc complicated by a haematoma that put pressure on his spine, AFP reported. That operation was declared a success.